Are you a Yemmie? How Young, Educated, Millennial Mothers" demand for hipster health food is altering the face of packaging

Are you a Yemmie How Young, Educated, Millennial Mothers' demand for hipster health food is altering the face of packaging

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UPDATED:

21:15 GMT, 19 November 2012

An increasing number of Americans are demanding more simplicity from their supermarket-bought foods, and demanding Yemmies are leading the way.

The young educated,
millennial mother is setting
the tone for how brands market themselves, trimming ingredient lists and promoting more products as 'natural,' and gluten-free.

For big brands and retailers, the demanding Yemmie is their worst nightmare. Less loyal than her baby boomer mother, she wants variety, convenience and 'natural' all in one; and marketers are clamoring to keep up.

Yemmie: The young educated, millennial mother is setting the tone for how brands market themselves today, trimming ingredient lists and promoting more products as 'natural,' and gluten-free

Boomers, who are both predictable and
loyal, spend $15 billion less than they were on supermarket products each year, whereas millennials, whose eating habits are scattered, are spending $50 billion more every year, according to Ad Age.

Brands can no longer appeal to a mass market of consumers who once reliably shopped for the same items at the same places, so well-established companies are designing products from scratch just for these Yemmies.

David Garfield, a managing director at Alix, explained that brands 'can't just
hedge and try to add a dash of hipness to traditional marketing,' so
new artisan products are being brought out daily with new buzz words
setting the tone for how we shop.

All natural: Even ice-cream is jumping on the bandwagon, Haagen-Dazs' Five brand touts just five natural ingredients

Claims of products being 'low-in' an ingredient, such as those promoting low salt, or fat, used to be a marketers shoe-in for attracting attention to a product.

Now, Lynn Dornblaser from market research group Mintel, says: 'It's more about talking about the presence of positives as opposed to the absence of negatives.

'Consumers are looking for products that make it easy for them to understand what's good about [them].

'That can be communicated in a lot of
ways. It could be [the] small number of ingredients, it could be
talking about the fruit and vegetable content or talking about the grain
content or talking about the protein content.'

She added that the packaging word of choice is now 'natural' rather
than 'organic,' because 'organic equals expensive, and so that is a
negative for some consumers.'

Kellogg,
for example, has a new campaign called 'start simple, start right'
advertising cereals such as Raisin Bran as being made with 'seven
ingredients or less.'

New packaging: Established brands are now highlighting a low number of ingredients in their products to try and attract Yemmies

Lay's potato chips, made from potatoes, oil and salt, also promote 'three simple ingredients,' while Yoplait just launched Simplait, a yogurt with 'just 6 simple ingredients,' and ice-cream brand Haagen-Dazs' Five brand also touts five ingredients.

Gluten-free and natural versions of brands are popping up everywhere to adapt to the rapidly changing food world in America.

Steve Hughes, CEO of General Mills, said: 'I don't think people trust what is in the mainstream food chain. I think there is a lot of concern out there.'